U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), along with U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a statement in response to a letter from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the department’s ongoing efforts to re-evaluate blood-donation criteria for men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a press release.
The lawmakers’ letter reads, in part, “While we appreciate the letter from HHS and the department’s initial steps to reexamine the ban on men who have sex with men (MSM) donating blood, we remain deeply disappointed by the slow pace of progress to change this discriminatory policy. We also feel the letter from HHS lacks a clear and detailed plan to make blood donation policies fairer and more effective, in line with sound science.”
MSM are currently banned from donating blood—a policy put in place during the rise of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. In 2010, the HHS Advisory Committee on Blood & Tissue Safety & Availability asked for re-evaluation of this policy.